Topic Guide
What Is Kaizen?
Kaizen is a subject covered in depth across 1 podcast episode in our database. Below you'll find key concepts, expert insights, and the top episodes to listen to — all distilled from hours of conversation by leading experts.
Key Concepts in Kaizen
The 1% of stocks that matter
This is Henry Ellenbogen's core investment thesis, stating that over a rolling 10-year period, approximately 40 stocks (about 1% of the public market) compound wealth at 20% annually or more, achieving a 6x return. Durable's entire investment philosophy and organizational structure are purpose-built to maximize the probability of investing in these rare wealth compounders, 80% of which start as small-cap companies.
Good to great thesis (leveraging discontinuous change)
This framework describes how existing, already well-operating companies can achieve exceptional long-term performance by effectively leveraging discontinuous technological changes (like AI) to either substantially lower costs or gain significant revenue scale. By reinvesting these advantages, they create persistent competitive moats, making it incredibly difficult for competitors to catch up, even if they possess similar resources and talent, exemplified by Domino's Pizza's technology investments or Amazon's fulfillment network.
Act 2 teams
This refers to management teams comprised of entrepreneurs who have previously solved and successfully 'won' in a product area or business, and are now applying that deep, hard-won clarity and experience to build their next venture, often leveraging new technology. Ellenbogen highlights that these individuals possess exceptional resilience and understanding of 'exception management,' making them significantly more likely to build durable, compounding companies again, such as Workday's founders or Max Levchin with Affirm.
What Experts Say About Kaizen
- 1.Only about 1% of public stocks, roughly 40 over a rolling 10-year period, compound wealth at 20% annually or more, achieving over 6x growth, and 80% of these wealth compounders begin as small-cap companies.
- 2.A significant competitive advantage for companies is the ability to leverage new technologies like AI to either substantially lower relative costs, gain revenue scale, or reinvest in persistent infrastructure that competitors cannot easily replicate, as seen with Amazon's physical fulfillment centers and Domino's Pizza's app investment.
- 3.Investing in 'Act 2 teams'—experienced entrepreneurs who have successfully built and won in a product area before and are now solving similar problems with new clarity and technology—significantly increases the probability of backing durable compounding companies.
- 4.The extreme short-term focus of much institutional capital (often on one-to-three-month horizons) creates systemic volatility and mispricing in public markets, which disciplined long-term investors like Durable can exploit by 'dollar-cost averaging down' into quality companies based on fundamental insights.
- 5.AI represents a discontinuous change potentially more impactful than the internet, mobile, or cloud, enabling a 'Kaizen to human work world' by dramatically leaning out IP-based processes and driving cost deflation at geometric rates, offering a powerful lever for existing companies to go from 'good to great'.
- 6.Public markets, despite their volatility, provide invaluable signals and discipline for companies by forcing financial clarity and allowing for the realignment of internal and external investments, which is crucial for balancing growth, profitability, and innovation through major transitions, as demonstrated by Netflix's strategic pivot to streaming.